IESB.Net Video Interview Transcript

Category: Transcripts | Posted by:adminArticle Date: February 13, 2007 | Publication: GerardButler.Net | Author: adminPublication/Article Link:http://iesb.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1878&Itemid=99
IESB: I wonder if you are fan of graphic novels, because I’ve just in the last few years started reading them and I was really amazed at how cinematic some of these artists and authors are and they really seem to just distill the essence of cinema and the visual impact and also just kind of a gut feel to the emotions and the story that they depict.

Gerard: It’s a very good way of putting it. I wasn’t until this. Sin City was the first time I really became aware of how dark you could be and then you think of course you can, because it’s just in the mind of your imagination and putting a pen to paper. You know, it doesn’t have to be kiddie stuff and it certainly isn’t. And your right, 300, because we’re talking about it, is that perfect example of seeing a world created with just little snapshots, that yet say so much just by a physical stance or an impression or an exaggeration and the colors and the tone, that was my main source of information and inspiration for playing the role.

IESB: I wonder in terms of performance as an actor is it almost like taking a separate approach, or not a separate, but a different approach to, you know now it is so much method acting and brooding over what these characters are doing as your saying, there seems to be let’s cut to the chase of what this guy wants to get at and just go for that you know?

Gerard: Well, I mean, any way of performing is a method. It’s one’s method. I’ve never quite understood what method acting really is because you find out people were method actors and you realize that we’re all doing different methods, so we all have our own way and but your right about this one in so much as just like the Spartans just kind of cut the chase of what’s going on you kind of got to cut to the heart of this character as well. And a lot of that came through the physical training and the fight work. When you are training with that intensity on such a daily basis for months and months and months you become that character. Basically, if you turn your mind that way for me the training was a constant focus and meditation on being a Spartan, being a king and being a leader. So yeah, I felt like a lion up there and that was just there.

IESB: Politically it is also a really interesting movie in that you have this king who you immediately want to root for and I was telling Zack now we have the hindsight to see what was the right actions that he did, but I think at the time I would have almost been on the side of the senate, you know what I mean? And it really shows how what a difficult situation he was in and just the whole country was in, or the whole city/state was in.

Gerard: You’re right and I love that. I mean I love that you have a different opinion than somebody else I just spoke to and I have a different opinion than both of you, but if that’s is what a film does, leaves you with different opinions, then that’s great and you can kind of argue it out of think about it because I thought the same thing, yet I always have compassion for the characters that I play, but, yet there were times when in discussion I think, we are like the bad guys in a way and yet you’re still set within the framework that we are defending our homeland and, we didn’t ask anybody to come in with this massive force and say “bow down”. We said no, we don’t do that. Would you if somebody came into your house and said “bow down in front of me”? Some people would, some people wouldn’t, but that wasn’t the Spartan way and therefore 300 years of becoming that Spartan state would have been a waste if they had just said “yeah.” It wasn’t, it wasn’t, they weren’t capable of thinking like that. Yeah, tough choice, but they had to do it, and in the end that’s why the film is so gripping because you are like “god damn, I wish I was like that, I wish I had that strength of character”